Immediately following yesterday’s news that Yoenis Cespedes had agreed to re-sign with the Mets on a new four-year deal, speculation about the possibility of a Jay Bruce trade began. Reports earlier in the week had indicated that the Mets would try to trade Bruce in the event of a new Cespedes deal, but Newsday’s Marc Carig reports that Curtis Granderson is drawing more trade interest than Bruce in early talks. Per Carig, the Mets aren’t closed off entirely to the idea of moving Granderson over Bruce, but the decision will be influenced by the strength of the return they’d get in a Granderson deal. The Blue Jays are one team with interest in Granderson, according to FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).
Meanwhile, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports that the Mets’ “overwhelmingly strong” preference is to move Bruce as opposed to one of Granderson, Michael Conforto or Juan Lagares (Twitter links). While the Mets have gotten calls on all four outfielders, DiComo conveys that the Mets have “made it clear” that neither Conforto nor Lagares will be going anywhere. The Tigers made an attempt at prying Conforto away from the Mets when they asked for him in return for J.D. Martinez prior to New York’s deal with Cespedes, Carig reports in his column, but that lopsided asking price predictably didn’t gain any traction with the Mets. (The Post’s Mike Puma notes that the the Mets still consider Conforto a building block moving forward even after his rough 2016 season.)
The financial difference between Bruce and Granderson isn’t especially great, with Bruce set to earn $13MM next year to Granderson’s $15MM. However, Granderson has been a quietly productive member of the Mets since signing his four-year, $60MM pact prior to the 2013 season, hitting a combined .241/.342/.436 and averaging 25 homers per season. While neither slugger has hit lefties whatsoever in recent years, Granderson is better-equipped than Bruce to handle center field despite being six years older. It should also be noted, of course, that Bruce’s tenure with the Mets was mostly a struggle. Though he caught fire late in the year and went 12-for-25 with four homers over his final eight games, Bruce batted just .219/.294/.391 as a member of the Mets, including a .174/.252/.285 skid prior to that eight-game heater to close out the year.
granderson is more productive on the bases and in the field. and i’m really not one to harp on intangibles but hes a team leader, he handles the ny media great and Bruce just seemed to wilt on the big stage. give him to the jays for whatever you can get and the salary relief.
Please Bluejays if you’re going for a mets outfielder make it Granderson. Stay away from Bruce, he’ll just be 2nd half Saunders 2.0
Agreed 100%. Granderson would be a pretty nice fit overall, Decent glove, good on the bases, batted clean up for the Mets behind Cespedes, and comes with an extra year of control. I’m wondering what the costs might be though. Probably Alford or Ramirez, a young controllable RH hitting CF at minimum?
No way he’d cost Alford. I think if we take on the whole salary, it might be more like Greene plus a smaller prospect. And that might be an overpay. Ramirez could be a guy they target, or one of Pentecost/McGuire since they don’t have much catching.
With talk of the Pirates moving McCutchen and looking for a corner outfielder while moving Marte to center, I think the Mets should propose a swap of Granderson and Gsellman for McCutchen. Assuming they work any salary concerns, I think this would be a huge benefit to both teams.
even following a down year, it would cost more then that to get the Pirates to part with their franchise guy. start with gsellman and ceccini and maybe one mlb ready arm like robles and MAYBE you could get him.
I disagree, maybe they have to throw in another good prospect like Cecchini, but they could get immediate value in the corner outfield with Granderson, a need they’ll have to fill after the trade anyway. Gsellman would be a great, cost-controlled young starter for the Bucs to get and in the current starting market he has increased value. Would you rather they take Bruce than Curtis?
i would absolutely rather include bruce in this hypothetical package. and yes the pirates would need a fill in til Meadows is ready so there is some logic to including one of the 2, but thats only the kick in. the real meat of the deal would need to be 2 good but not great prospects. i think gsellman and ceccini fit that mold but that would leave the mets with very little pitching depth, and i dont think its wise in general.
McCutchen wasn’t even replacement level in 2016.
his oWAR was tolerable because he played center, but his defense was atrocious and utterly negated his bat. you put that same slash line in the corner and it looks pedestrian. with that offensive output, he would be meh even if his defense is ok in a corner spot.
No way the Pirates do that.
honestly I believe it would be a really good trade for both teams, if the mets give bruce gsellman, Cecchini, and robles than we have a really good chance to get him because theyre getting a team leader in bruce, a young, cost friendly pitcher in gsellman, a top prospect in Cecchini and a very solid arm in robles, in return the mets are getting a guy who could be a team leader, can keep the clubhouse loose, bring in merchandise and ticket sales without even playing, I would like to see the mets try to go after tony Watson in the trade too, if that means giving up another prospect or 2 I’m all for it. if he had a down year, its still worth taking the risk because down the stretch he did heat up again after he got sat for 3 games. he is one of the best in baseball if healthy and an overall excellent player when healthy, if I’m sandy I would be making a big push for him, keep granderson in rf and try out conforto at first base.
it would likely take more than Granderson and Gsellman for McCutchin and it is a question if it is worth it. This is where the scouting department earns its money. If he can play 85% of this Superstar level, he has value. If not, then I’m not sheading an arm for him.
The Mets can move Gsellman Granderson for McCutchen would be a great Mets X-mas present..
The NL All-Star starting outfield for 2017 is Cespeded, McCutachen and Conforto.
I like it!
Any non-Mets fans: Who would you rather and why? I could see an argument made for Grandy for his better defense, more speed, and better on base numbers. I could also see an argument made for Bruce because of his raw power (even though Grandy did hit 30 HRs last year) and arm.
Bruce should go way before Granderson. Bruce openly did not want to come to NY, while Granderson is loved by the younger fans. Granderson in the 4 spot behind Cespedes was fantastic too.
Cubs fan here… Grandly has substantially more value. Bruce had a down 2nd half of ’16, but he also had a horrendous ’15. Herrera was a way overpay and you won’t get even half of that in return. Also, the McCutcheon proposed deal is nonsense, no offense to anyone. As terrible as he was in ’16, Pittsburgh isn’t dealing their franchise player for anything less than a top prospect plus. And I say that despite thinking McCutcheon can’t play CF anymore and will probably, with the exception of a year maybe, never be better again than last season. Pittsburgh is just not selling that to it’s fan base. It’s not worth it, but to get him you’d probably have to give up a top 2-3 prospect in your org plus more. You don’t want to do that.
100% agree…and I’m a diehard Met fan. McCutcheon will req. far more talent to pry away. I really like Gsellman, but that it isn’t realistic proposal. I’d rather Cutch stay out of WAS and NYM…the former bc he could bounce back and the latter because I don’t think he will.
Granderson gives the Mets so much more defensive flexibility., something that — for what it’s worth, helped the Cubs keep essentially their entire roster (sans the fluke injury to Kyle Schwarber) healthy the entire year. Is he a great CFer? No, but he’s passable enough for six-to-seven innings until Lagares can come in for a defensive replacement.
If Grandy stays, he plays center against righties, Lagares against lefties. Conforto can just be given right field and not worry about learning center and/or 1B while working on his approach.
In a light corner outfield market, Bruce should bring back something useful.
Not to mention the guy will do anything that is asked if him: bat lead off, clean-up, play RF, CF (run full speed into the centerfield wall in a do or die game).. you know he can Handle NY, did it with both mets and Yankees… same can’t be said for Bruce. Yeah he’s 6 years younger than Granderson, but honelstly, you can’t overlook grandy’s versatility, ability to shine in a big spot, handle NY and leadership. Again… The same can absolutely not be said about Bruce. Plus you can get more for Bruce and remember, neither of them will be around after next season.
Good post … and 100% true.
im a mets fan and not one blinded by my loyalty who constantly overrates the team. Granderson is much older. He’s no longer a threat on base paths. He literally has no arm and his fielding has degraded considerably. Also note while Bruce had a terrible 2nd half, granderson had a godawful 1st half.
theres more to being a good OF than an arm, especially in center where Granderson would be playing a lot of. Bruce barely managed 1 win last season, is a stumblebum in the corners and is a slow, and bad base runner. who cares if one is younger or older? both are in walk years.
Granderson can no longer play CF fulltime. Keep living in the past…going on 36 is a big deal if you want productivity from an OF position.
ooh ok, i’m living in the distant past of 2016 where granderson posted a 2.5 WAR and was just under average in the field and Bruce was worth .6 and was nearly 2 points in the negative defensively. HMMM. and i didnt say play granderson in CF full time, but 30 games? maybe. its more then Bruce could give you.
only morons think defensive metrics tell you the entire story
they are tools to help make evaluations. are they perfect? no. but they paint a pretty good picture, and btw only morons think rbis matter.
did i say that? i think you’re the moron assuming everything
I think defensive metrics show me the best defenders are the best defenders. Yknow, like kiermaier, pillar, Cain etc
“Most of the damage Bruce got from RBIs came with people on base…” you literally said this.
its true you idiot. That doesn’t mean its the most important thing. wow your homer-ism is unfathomable
you think i’m a homer because i think rbis are meaningless, and i believe in the metrics that indicate that bruce sucked? howwww?
Ha!
Yeah but he got hot down the stretch when we needed him the most. Bruce pretty much laid an egg from the get (besides the final few games.. ) Also Bruce didn’t want to be in NY, he made that known. And grandy might not have an arm but he reads the ball well off the bat and is quick to the ball.
As much as people want to hate on Jay Bruce, his bat is what you are buying and he will be an actual piece for an AL team that wants to utilized him as a DH and part time RF. Last season before the trade to the Mets, he posted an 0.875 OPS. If he was a DH, that would’ve been a 2 WAR player. Project that same production over the last 1/3 of the season and he’s a 3 WAR DH. He struggled mightily in 2014 and 2015 but previously posted an OPS over 0.800 in each of the four seasons from 2010-2013 with a combined 121 HRs. He’s essentially a left handed hitting Mark Trumbo but a year younger and with higher highs and lower lows.
A team trying to acquire Bruce should be doing so if they intend on using him as a DH majority of the time. If he can provide the same kind of offensive production that he showed in Cincy the first half of last season, his new team can then extend the qualifying offer, if there is one, and collect the draft pick upon his departure. Teams like the Blue Jays, Orioles, Red Sox, Rangers and Yankees that all play in hitters parks make the most sense. The Blue Jays seem like the least likely team to fully utilize Bruce’s strengths since they already signed their DH for next season in Kendrys Morales.
btw theres a reason why mets were deadlast or near bottom for most of the year in scoring runs…Granderson playing leadoff meant basically no men on base. Most of the damage Bruce got from RBIs came with people on base…
what does this even mean? who cares about rbis? bruce slashed .219/294/391 in NY. tough to drive in runs when you’re sucking that bad.
did you watch the mets last year? could they score runs when they weren’t hitting HR barrages?
yeah hitting home runs sucks…guess the blue jays should shorten up and go the other way. the mets offense was weak because they had to play Loney more then duda, d’arnaud was awful, lagares cant hit, de aza was a bust, conforto had a terrible softmore slump etc. having a bad offense comes down to having bad offensive players, or players having bad seasons. hitting too many home runs is such a stupid narrative that i cant believe people really buy into.
Most of the damage any player does in the pointless RBI stat are from when players are on base. You might have just said the most pointless comment ever
nope, you just won it
If you use RBIs as a stat to judge a player you clearly are not educated about baseball. Also saying most of his RBI damage came from people on base. Lol unless you hit a HR the ONLY way to get an RBI is by having someone on base
Most of the air that sagbaegls breathes comes from the air around him. The rest comes straight from his mom’s farts.
Fangraphs has Grandy at 1.4 WAR while Bruce is 0.7They don’t have a lot of value on the market. maybe a middle of the road relief pitcher.like Danny Barnes., or Jesse Chavez
Lol…no. An 800 or so OPS player is considerably better than a 4 and 4.5 ERA relief pitcher. If that’s the WAR for those relief pitchers, then its a really flawed stat. You have to use your common sense here in that case.
Cut the Bruce Loooose.
Unless the Mets pursue another outfielder this offseason (free agent CF Dexter Fowler?) it is more likely that Jay Bruce would be traded than Curtis Granderson. Bruce isn’t capable of playing CF while Granderson can.
Curtis Granderson would be a great DH in the AL better than a player full time in the the field.
Granderson is so much better a fit with the Mets than Bruce, since he is at least passable as a CF and leadoff batter, but I’m surprised that the league as a whole prefers Granderson, I would have expected both to have similar value.
I love the idea floated above of trading one with prospects for McCutchen, but I think the prospect cost would be a lot higher than was being discussed, and more than the Mets can afford to part with.
mostly speculative at this point
any possibility of moving conforto for JD martinez and then trading Bruce? JD martinez in the lineup sounds amazing
Yeah, but his defense is worse than Bruce’s.
I didn’t realize we would only get 1 year of JD. Conforto just looked lost all last year.
None. The Mets’ FO has said that they aren’t training Conforto. 5yr of control for a guy who just turned 23.
are you serious? Trade Conforto for a retread?
The Tigers GM must be desperate to to dump salary if he’s willing to trade JD Martinez for Michael Conforto? I’m not the end all in judging however, in the games I’ve seen, Martinez is an outstanding hitter whereas Conforto can neither hit nor defended any position very well.
Lol talk about a guy that’s never seen Conforto play. Because you have to be a pretty bad analytic to think all the tools he’s shown has no chance of translating into quality MLB talent. Mets didn’t even wanna trade him for Jonathan Lucroy. So why they trade him for just a year of JD Martinez and his negative defense?
Thank you IVANIVAN!
Only in your mind does Conforto not hit or play defense. In the real world he does both exceptionally.
Jeez, talk about selling a guy short. I mean he hasn’t even logged an entire season yet under his belt not to mention is he even old enough to drink? Give him time. How about platooning in CF with lagares, possibly taking a shot at 1B. And if I hear one more person mention Wright playing 1st base with a broken back and neck I’m gonna lose my mind. You know how loose you have to be to play 1B? I love Wright but from an organizational standpoint you almost have to go forward like he’s not even on the team. If you get anything from him, that’s awesome, a bonus. If you can play, they will get him at bats
Conforto will be 24 to start next season, so yeah, he can drink. Looking up things like this take like 5 seconds.
You know what I was getting at… and way to back up his previous nonsense comment. Just admit I’m right opposed to nitpicking on the storyboard
Or chalk it up to WAR… maybe if they sold knishes at the ballpark we wouldn’t have been so bad with RISP. Or if they added more leg room in the dugout we could have stole more bases..
The Mets have him penciled in for 162 games next year, Lol.
I’ve worried since yesterday that Grandy might be the one to go. 🙁
One thing to be thankful for is the surplus of OF & infielders. Yeah it be nice to solidify the catcher position and definitley NEED to strengthen that bullpen, having 2 closers is the way to go these days.. but it really comes down to the health and effectiveness of our starting 5. Remember what we did to that Cubs lineup in the NLCS 2015?! They didnt have a chance when those guys are pitching to their capability
I wanna see an old fashioned “BLOCKBUSTER” like the Braves and Indians did back before the 96? Justice and Lofton!?! Who knows the players in that deal?
If the Mets just trade Bruce for a dilson herrera type prospect I’d be happy. He is not a productive player and doesn’t want to be in NY.
Why hasn’t anyone suggested a Bruce to the White Sox for David Robertson deal? The Mets get a second closer so Familia doesn’t burn out or in place of Familia if J’s family issue affects his effectiveness or availability? Sox get a potent bat for DH or part-time corner OF. Sox could then find another reliever on the market, get a DH who could probably give them more than Justin Morneau did.
Granderson, Cecchini and Robles for Britton.
If Bruce went to the blue jays what would the mets ask for back? I’m having a hard time coming up with something for him that the mets need that the blue jays could give. Tellez? Pompey? Girodo? Perdomo? Rios?
Conforto goes nowhere youtube.com/watch?v=hO-lk4T1o4k
Heard someone mention grandy, Conforto and gsellman for cutch. Interesting but I don’t see that happening. They could marte in CF But what about Polanco? Mets would then almost have to trade lagares you would think and personally I’d just rather move Bruce for a good reliever.
What are you talking about. No GM in baseball is sending Conforto for McCutchen. Stop listening to those voices.
Did I say it was happening or that I was for it? No I dont believe I did, so if you’re gonna comment on something you should probably read it thoroughly genius